On receiving he r third Academy Award for her performance in The Iron Lady, recently, Meryl Streep modestly exclaimed,“When they called my name, I had the feeling I could hear half of America going, ‘oh, no.Come on!’” The hall, packed with the biggest names in Hollywood, guffawed, unanimously.After all, Meryl Streep is an institution, and deserved the statuette.With a record breaking 17 nominations, Streep won her first Academy Award for Sophie’s Choice (1982), and second, for Kramer vs Kramer (1979).With a career spanning four decades, and both powerful and popular roles in films like The Devil Wears Prada, Mamma Mia! and now, The Iron Lady, Streep has a lot to share:When did this role first come to your attention?From working on Mamma Mia! (2008), me and Phyllida (director) had been speaking periodically.I had been telling her about my dream to make a movie about Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.I know that sounds funny, but I have an interest in things that we don’t want to handle in movies or look at, because I think anything forbidden is exciting, you know? Nudity is nothing, it’s not really a provocation.Try and talk about leaving and dying and all those things.Three days in the life of a little old lady, who just happens to be the person who was the longest serving Prime Minister in the 20th century and the only female in the western world who ruled a nuclear country.Pretty interesting stuff, to look at a life ebbing in its diminishment.Were you concerned about playing someone whose views may be different to your own?No, I just think that there are so many secrets in lives we’ve decided we know everything about.That’s what I like to know about, I like to know the other stuff.I had already decided that I knew everything about Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, everybody I disagreed with (laughs).But you don’t know everything, that’s why we’re alive; to learn more.And, God, the compassionate journey into disagreeable territory…I don’t know, I really like to portray prickly people, difficult women on a certain level.What did you discover about Margaret Thatcher?I knew I had to read a lot, so I gave a lot of time to that.Phyllida had given us two weeks of rehearsal in London.I said,‘Can we have one week of rehearsal, can I just sit in my house and eat, sleep and dream Margaret Thatcher for the other week?’And Phyllida said, ‘Yes.’ So that was amazing.I sort of went to jail, shut myself up and did all the cramming that I could.It was nerveracking (laughs).It was interesting, because everyone had a blood red opinion of Margaret Thatcher.You got a lot of the physicality of her from her speech?Absolutely.I took speeches she gave in the House of Commons that aren’t in the film, and I just tried to say them along with her.I have so much drama school, and I could not keep up with the breath, and the attachment to conviction, and the thought that follows through in the breath...listening to her gave me an idea of the reserves of strength that she had, and also how she had to stand and sit and always be alert...from the moment she drew breath, she knew where she was going.What would you like people to take from watching this movie?Everybody got on the subway and saw some old lady sitting across from them, and they would imagine that there was a whole life behind all those wrinkles...I mean, there is almost nothing less interesting in our consumerist society than an old lady.We don’t make movies for her, we don’t give a damn, we can’t sell her anything because she doesn’t buy anything.But it’s just the idea that everything, the whole panoply of human experience: births, deaths, struggles, joy, everything’s in there
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